Author Heather McGhee said she started out on a mission to answer one simple question: "Why can’t America have nice things, like well-funded public schools in every neighborhood, universal guaranteed health care, child care and affordable housing?"
Racist politics is the answer to those questions in her book, "The Sum of Us: How Racism Cost Everyone and How We Can Prosper."
"There is a real mutual interest in addressing racial injustice. Racism costs our economy over a trillion dollars a year in lost GDP growth," McGhee said. "The kinds of solutions that we need to enact in order to address the vestiges of explicit racism in our laws and our policies is not a zero-sum,"
Related: The Sum of Us: an evening with Heather McGhee
McGhee joined Midday Edition on Thursday to talk about her book and how the damage of racist policies impacts every American.
McGhee will also be discussing her book virtually as part of the Black History Month lecture series held by the San Diego Public Library in partnership with the University of San Diego Copley Library from 6:30 p.m. to 8 pm. Monday, Feb. 28.
You can register here.
